The present invention relates to a method of and an apparatus for smelting. More particularly this invention concerns a system and plant for smelting and refining iron in a shaft furnace.
It is possible in a shaft furnace to smelt iron-containing scrap, sponge iron, pelletized iron-containing ore, iron dross, and the like by introducing this iron-containing material into the top of the furnace to form therein an upright column of such material. A burner heats the base of the column to form at the bottom of the shaft furnace a liquified-iron melt covered by a layer of slag. In addition this burner causes the formation of a scale or deposit on the refractory lining of the furnace and the column is supported on this deposit as described in my copending and commonly owned patent application Ser. No. 651,526 filed Jan. 22, 1976.
The burner at the bottom of the furnace typically mixes right in the furnace oxygen and combustible. This hot flame and the extremely active FeO slag tend to eat away the refractory furnace lining at the floor and lower regions of the walls of the furnace. It is essential to minimize this erosion in the furnace as well as in any other treatment vessels. Also the liquified iron in the melt at the bottom of the furnace must not be allowed to solidify.